Guerrilla gardening: a frontline tour - in pictures

Guerrilla gardening: a frontline tour - in pictures

Richard Reynolds, poster boy of
guerrilla gardening and author of On Guerrilla Gardening, gave an inspiring tour of his key Elephant and Castle gardens last weekend as part of the
Chelsea Fringe Festival. Urban greening fans got an insight into the stories behind the roundabouts, tree-pits and flower beds where Reynolds is waging war on the neglect of public space.

The Chelsea Fringe festival runs from now until June 10. Find out more at chelseafringe.com

Wednesday 23 May 2012 11.03 EDT
First published on Wednesday 23 May 2012 11.03 EDT

Richard Reynolds, poster boy of
guerrilla gardening and author of the book On Guerrilla Gardening, gave an inspiring tour of his key Elephant and Castle gardens last weekend as part of the
Chelsea Fringe Festival. Urban greening fans got an insight into the stories behind the roundabouts, tree-pits and flower beds where Reynolds is waging war on the neglect of public space. The event marked the launch of the new
Pimp your Pavement campaign, which aims to get us all planting in our streets.

Like all the sites on Reynolds’ "front line of guerrilla gardening", this roundabout is within a half-mile radius of his Elephant and Castle home. Known for its disastrous, large-scale town planning, this part of London is a fitting hub for small, human-scale and largely unplanned initiatives for shared public spaces, such as guerrilla gardening. This is anti-town planning in action, in the armpit of town planning.

Nestling under a chevron sign on Elephant and Castle roundabout, this is the first of Reynolds’ gardens that he can admire from his living room window. It is also the only garden where Reynolds has been threatened with arrest. "Normally police are just confused, but ultimately let me get on with it. This time we had no plants or seedlings with us to back our story up. It lead to the police uttering the immortal line, 'put down your tools or we’re taking you in',” says Reynolds. "I didn’t want to get arrested, so we went back to my flat, drank a bottle of wine and came back later and finished up."

Reynolds first and possibly most accomplished garden is outside the block of flats where he lives. He says creating gardens that are local to him has been key to being able to commit to their upkeep and recommends that aspiring guerrilla gardeners likewise choose to work within their local areas.

All the gardens are united in their unplanned planting policy. Rather planting is the result of a hotchpotch of donated plants and cuttings. Reynolds says, “I just say to people, bring whatever plants you like. Let’s not design this thing.”

Named the Guerrilla Gardening Lavender Fields, this fragrant traffic island is the work of over 200 volunteers over six years. It is also the site where Reynolds met and later proposed to his future wife. The lavender is harvested annually and made into lavender bags that are sold to fund further guerrilla gardening operations.

Like any good gardener, Reynolds believes in reacting and adapting to his environment. So, when residents of a local homeless hostel sat on and broke his raised beds, rather than plant prickly plants to deter them, he is planning to build them a bench-like ledge and choose squash-proof plants. And where clubbers use a corner of his garden to urinate, instead of putting up "don’t pee here" signs, he’s planted some lilies for them to look at while they relieve themselves.

Reynolds has created an avenue of "pimped pavements” on a local street after convincing TFL, who manage the pavements, to fill the new tree pits with soil, not sand. Reynolds’ new
Pimp your Pavement campaign asks people to plant in their own streets, often in tree pits like this. The lofty aim is to transform the public realm into a ‘borderless community garden”. Find out more and get tips on how to find suitable sites, transform and maintain them, (including a guide to creating a tree-pit raised bed that increases soil depth without risking trunk rot) at
pimpyourpavement.com.